Trike front end wobble

[Scratch2]

I know my topic is a old one, I have a 2015 Goldwing Trike which I brought from Sunrise Motor Sports in Arizona, as a left over NEW trike in 2017. I now have 10000 miles on it and I’m getting front end wobble between 60/70 miles and hour, the only thing I’ve done to it was replace the front tire.

What is the BEST SOLUTION to remedy this, and would this be covered by the warranty, which Sunrise Motor Sports gave me at purchase time?


Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks; Bob

[WingAdmin]

I know my topic is a old one, I have a 2015 Goldwing Trike which I brought from Sunrise Motor Sports in Arizona, as a left over NEW trike in 2017. I now have 10000 miles on it and I’m getting front end wobble between 60/70 miles and hour, the only thing I’ve done to it was replace the front tire.

What is the BEST SOLUTION to remedy this, and would this be covered by the warranty, which Sunrise Motor Sports gave me at purchase time?


Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks; Bob

Front end wobble has a multitude of potential causes. By removing and replacing the swingarm and rear suspension/driveline with a trike back end, you've removed quite a few of those potential causes. So you're going to be looking at your front end.

- Tire: defect, mounting error, abnormal wear
- Wheel bearings
- Steering bearings
- Fork free play

You said you had the tire replaced - did the wobble begin immediately after the new tire was put on?

Try lifting the front tire and check for free play in the bearings and suspension. Pull the tire fore and aft, push it side to side, try to rotate it laterally (from each side, push the top and pull the bottom of the tire). You're looking for any kind of free play or movement - there should be none.

While the tire is off the ground, spin it, and examine the bead. You'll see a line molded into the tire, fairly close to the rim of the wheel. Make sure that line remains equidistant from the rim on both sides as the tire rotates. Make sure that the center of the tread of the tire doesn't appear to move from side to side as the tire spins.

[newday777]

Yes check your tire bead.

First and foremost, is steering bearings, are probably loose from improper torque, lack of grease(straight from Honda very minimal grease was put in), or a dent in the bearing race causing the looseness and thus the wobble. If a dent, they need to be replaced...especially if they are the stock round ball bearings and should be replaced with tapered Allballs bearings, properly torqued.
Yes they should be covering this. They will try to squirm out of covering it most likely.

Did you get a raked triple tree put on or did the shop put one on when it was triked?

[2003Cobra]

Since you don't say that you had the problem before you changed the Tire as posted I would suspect the tire. One other thing to check is to make sure the rotation is in the right direction. There is an arrow that shows the direction of rotation on the tire, Very easy to install it backwards. Good luck.

[pcolawinger]

Is it indeed tire wobble or front end shake that mimics a tire wobble?
The reason I ask, my newly triked Goldwing had what I first thought was a front wheel wobble, because, at 60-65 mph, the front end would begin to shake and get worse as I approached 70. Sometimes it was so bad, I thought the front fairing was going to fly apart!
I went to the trike shop and had the front wheel (BT45) replaced with an Avon Cobra Trike Tire. I did notice an immediate improvement in the way the bike felt through my hands, but it still started to shake like it did before as I approached 60,
Back at the trike shop, the owner jacked up the rear end and began to spin the tire on one side and simultaneously moved a square edge toward the tread. As he got very close, the noise of the square contacting the tread was intermittent, indicating a flat spot on the tire. Repeating the procedure again on the other side had identical results. It turned out that the tires provided with my trike kit were already 5 years old and had most likely been stored strapped together in the upright position. I had both rear tires replaced at the expense of the company that provided the kit and took it out for a test ride and went right past 65 without even the slightest wobble, in fact I was at 75 without realizing it. It’s ridden exceptionally well ever since.

[Ghostman]

I just wish when problems like this are posted we would hear what the outcome on whether or not we were of some help or not. And if not we would have other solutions to try.